diff --git a/src/help.c b/src/help.c
index 0b7df70a..611fc4c6 100644
--- a/src/help.c
+++ b/src/help.c
@@ -435,6 +435,8 @@ void show_help(void)
 	location = 0;
 	didfind = 0;
 
+	bottombars(MHELP);
+
 	/* Extract the title from the head of the help text. */
 	length = break_line(help_text, HIGHEST_POSITIVE, TRUE);
 	title = measured_copy(help_text, length);
@@ -453,8 +455,6 @@ void show_help(void)
 		lastmessage = VACUUM;
 		focusing = TRUE;
 
-		bottombars(MHELP);
-
 		/* Show the cursor when we searched and found something. */
 		kbinput = get_kbinput(edit, didfind == 1 || ISSET(SHOW_CURSOR));
 		didfind = 0;
@@ -479,10 +479,12 @@ void show_help(void)
 								openfile->filebot->lineno)
 				do_scroll_down();
 		} else if (func == do_page_up || func == do_page_down ||
-					func == to_first_line || func == to_last_line ||
-					func == do_search_forward || func == do_search_backward ||
+					func == to_first_line || func == to_last_line) {
+			func();
+		} else if (func == do_search_forward || func == do_search_backward ||
 					func == do_findprevious || func == do_findnext) {
 			func();
+			bottombars(MHELP);
 #ifdef ENABLE_NANORC
 		} else if (func == (functionptrtype)implant) {
 			implant(first_sc_for(MHELP, func)->expansion);